The Last Case
by Rogue2k7
Summary: With the school year almost over and Vallejo about to graduate, the Safety Patrol has to deal with one last case, one that will lead to them facing some of their worst enemies in a massive conspiracy.
1. The End is the Beginning is the End

Act I: The End is the Beginning is the End

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><p>Disclaimer: Don't own Fillmore!. Just own a couple of OCs that may be in the fic.<p>

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><p><strong>Friday<strong>

The operation was quick and easy. Just a day before, the Safety Patrol got word of a team of hackers hitting the mainframe. It didn't take long for the entire group, new recruits and all, to descend on the trio of hackers as they attempted their alterations of the grades.

"Freeze," the African-American member of the safety-patrol yelled out, flashing his badge. That was when the three hackers immediately bolted. This was the third attempt at hacking the computer systems, the previous two failing only because of the Safety Patrol's intervention. The first one was an attempt by two members of the computer club to prove that everyone's the same, including the popular people. The second was caused by the ringleader of this group, a blond loser who attempted to use the mainframe to change everyone's grades on the night of the eighth grade dance. The outcome was that said blond was defeated and the Safety Patrol gained a new member.

Now, the spiky-haired blond boy was staring at the African-American. "Fillmore, it's good to see you again." In fact, blondie attempted to poison Fillmore like the time before, but it didn't work.

"Likewise, Patterson."

"I see you've caught us. Unfortunately, you arrived a bit too late." Patterson smiled, causing the group of four Safety Patrol members to gasp. The group consisted of Tehama, a Japanese girl, Ingrid, a black-haired girl with a black dress, and Bueller, a girl with brown hair in a ponytail wearing a red shirt and blue, form-fitting jeans. Bueller was simply there to replace Anza while he was at his hearing. She didn't particularly want to be there, since Patterson had the hots for her in the past (she didn't like that he was so pale and skinny or that he sent one of his fangirls to get her).

The screen showed the grades for everyone in the school: all A's except for members of the Safety Patrol who received failing grades in every subject. "Dawg…" was Fillmore's reaction to the sight.

Then Patterson and his two fangirls proceeded to run. Fillmore and Third went after Patterson while Bueller and Tehama each went after one of the fangirls. The girls were each joined by a chubby guy with brown skin and curly brown hair and a blonde girl respectably. The fangirls were easy to nab, one of them attempted to hide in the tires, but that didn't work since Tehama and the blonde had her cornered easily and she was too afraid of breaking a nail to climb properly. Bueller and the brown-haired guy almost followed the other girl into the Maize Maze, but stopped just in time.

"Bueller to Seth, do you have a feed?"

Seth was a chubbier kid than the one that Bueller was with who had blond hair and blue eyes. He was one of the recent recruits, who, although giving out cheat sheets at the time of the SATTY 9 tests, changed his ways and joined the Safety Patrol shortly after Bueller. "Yeah, just go in and turn left… now right! …keep going straight, and you got her surrounded. Just go in and get her."

Bueller and her partner had the blonde fangirl bottlenecked. "Got you! Now you're going to have to come with us," the brunette said, grabbing onto the girl's arm.

Fillmore and Third were still trying to find Patterson, though. Despite not being all that smart, the guy seemed to know his way around the school. Fillmore and Third fallowed him into the boys' locker room, which, much to Third's dismay, was full of boys changing. The girl shielded her eyes as best as possible, trying not to catch sight of anything she wouldn't want in her photographic memory. Then Fillmore spotted him. "There!" he said, pointing to a window that was being exited by the overly good-looking boy.

Both Fillmore and Third climbed out of the window with ease. Then they spotted the perpetrator running across the soccer field. There wasn't anybody there playing soccer so he was sticking out like a sore thumb. Patterson was already an athlete, though his forte was actually swimming, not running. Of course, since his last offense, he hadn't actually been swimming. Fillmore was the faster runner though, due to his experience in chasing suspects. Eventually, the boy tackled Patterson and knocked him to the ground, hand-cuffing him.

* * *

><p>"Glad that's over with," Ingrid commented. They were now back at headquarters and the entire group of Safety Patrollers was there, including the new recruits and Frank Bishop the profiler. He had black hair spiked in front and was wearing a dark blue buttoned-up shirt over a white t-shirt and black jeans.<p>

"Something's not right," he said, going into the interrogation room where Robert Patterson was. The fangirls were already interrogated and it turned out that neither of them actually did anything to help with hacking the computers. It turned out that Patterson actually used a code given to him by someone to get into the computer systems. Thanks to the work of a girl named Yumi who worked for the computer club, though, the grades were restored back to the way they were before the changeover, including the Safety Patrol's.

Frank Bishop walked out of the interrogation room. "It turns out that yeah, he was working for someone. However, he doesn't know who. That I know is true."

"Why am I not surprised?" Fillmore asked. "I mean, the last time Patterson try to do this, he had… outside help."

"I barely remember that. Unfortunately, I was one of the Safety Patrollers that got knocked out by him back then. I gotta wonder: why didn't he do that this time?"

"It's a long story," Ingrid said. Then again, it had been weeks since the incident and they had a lot of cases to go through, so their memory was kind of hazy. "Let's just say that I'd rather forget about the whole fiasco."

It was about that time that Vallejo and Anza came in. "So… how'd it go?" Fillmore asked.

"Guess what? Anza's the new Jr. Commissioner as soon as I graduate," Vallejo announced. He was a slightly overweight Mexican-American who tended to wear pretty formal outfits to school, namely his dark grey pants, light blue shirt and dark blue tie. "Of course, we still have a week, people, so keep working!" Then he turned back to Fillmore. "So, how'd the case go?"

"We caught Patterson red-handed. Unfortunately…" Fillmore let Bishop finish.

"… We have reason to believe Patterson may have been working for someone. We don't know who, though."

"Alright, let's get this finished before finals, okay? Besides, it'll be hard finishing things once two members of the force are gone."

"You got that right," Fillmore agreed.

A few hours later, it didn't look promising. "So far, nothing…" Ingrid said. "We checked the answering machine but Patterson had already deleted the message. We called his provider to figure out where the call came from and it came from a pay-phone, off campus."

"Dawg, nothing," was Fillmore's response. "We're going to have to work harder."

"Unfortunately, guys, we're out of time," Bueller said, pointing at the clock.

"So, we're still going to my house, right, Rachelle?" Ingrid asked.

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot it was Friday."

Tehama came up, "Wow, I can't believe you forgot our study session for tonight."

"It's not that, Karen, I just forgot that today was Friday. Great, we're going to have to wait all weekend to solve this case, aren't we?"

Tehama and Third both nodded.

"Hey Bueller," Vallejo called out, walking up to the girls, "Are you doing anything tomorrow afternoon? Frank and I are thinking of going to a movie and then heading to my house for some studying. What do you say?"

"I would say yes except that my dad doesn't want me going to any boys' houses. Hey, we could always go to mine. You haven't been, right?"

Vallejo shook his head. "No I haven't. Hey, it'll be great to meet your family."

"By the way, bring your swim trunks. I have a pool."

Vallejo blushed as the brunette girl walked out of the room with her two friends.

* * *

><p>Back at home, Fillmore picked up the phone and dialed the number of an old friend. It had been a couple months since spring break, when Fillmore went down to Tennessee to visit his friend Wayne Liggett. He was worried that something was going on so he felt a need to call his old friend, old partner, and current Safety Patrol sheriff of a school in Tennessee.<p>

"Hey, how are you doing, Wayne?"

_"Great, how about you,"_ the other boy asked.

"Mighty fine. How's the sheriff duty going these days?"

_"Well, school's out earlier over here, so it's going great. I got re-appointed, you know."_

"I kind of figured you would. We'll have a new one in Anza beginning next year, but we still have Vallejo for the week."

_"That's great. Oh yeah, there's something I need to tell you_…" What Fillmore heard next disturbed him.

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><p>Vallejo was busy doing some studying for Algebra when his phone rang. He didn't answer it, but his mother called through the door, telling him that it was for him. Hearing that, he groggily walked over and picked it up. Since he was at home, he wasn't wearing his tie and the top of his shirt was unbuttoned.<p>

_"Hey, Vallejo,"_ Fillmore greeted.

"Fillmore? What are you calling me about this time of night?"

_"I found out something from Liggett that may affect the case."_

Vallejo was curious. "Go on."

_"It turns out the former Safety Patrol Sheriff at his school, the one that I busted, has escaped from the military school that his father put him in and that some of his former cronies went with him."_

"And how does this affect the case? They were in Tennessee."

_"Still, they have a vendetta against me. I think that may be some cause for concern. Then again, as far as I know, none of them have any skills that could be used for computer hacking. However, I would still tell the others to be on the lookout for them."_

Vallejo nodded. "Alright. That's good as done."

_"Good to hear, chief."_

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><p>Ingrid was drilling Tehama for history when her phone rang. "Hello… Oh hi, Vallejo… Okay, good to know… Yeah, there are two others here, I'll tell them. Bye." As soon as she hung up, she spoke to the other two girls in the room. "I turns out we're to be on the lookout for the former Safety-Patrol sheriff of a school in Tennessee. He was described as overweight with blond hair and blue eyes. He also has a tendency to dress up like a cowboy with the hat and everything."<p>

"Good to know. No pictures?" Rachelle asked.

"No, none."

"Do they think that he may have something to do with the hacking from earlier?" Tehama asked.

"We have nothing that could confirm or deny that. Fillmore just found out by calling his old partner."

"Patterson and now this guy… it sounds like it could be part of a large conspiracy with Patterson and the former sheriff being pawns."

"That's highly probable. After today, all the passwords were changed and additional backups of grades were made, but there's a chance that whoever's pulling the strings could have made additional changes to the system," Ingrid commented. "Karen, was there anything to indicate who else may have been involved at the crime scene?"

"No, nothing," Tehama replied. "The only fingerprints there were from Patterson and his fangirls."

"Crackers."

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><p>AN: Well, this is a short chapter for a short fic. I figured I'd stop it here since that's the end of the day's events for you.

A few notes. Seth was a minor character from the episode 'Test of the Tested.' I added him to the safety patrol… just because. Along with him, there are the minor safety patrol members that show up every so often (the blond girl and the ambiguously brown guy with curly hair). I don't think those guys even got named. If anyone knows, just tell me. Rachelle, on the other hand, is my character and shouldn't be confused with the one from the episode about bullying. Then there's Frank Bishop from 'The Shreds fall like Snowflakes' or whatever that's called.


	2. The Lesser of Two Evils

Act II: The Lesser of Two Evils

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><p><strong>Saturday<strong>

The day started out normally for Vallejo, get up, eat some breakfast, then shower. After that, he returned to his room and found an unexpected visitor. A girl with brown hair and brown eyes that was decidedly not Rachelle Bueller was laying on his bed in a bit of a seductive pose, something that caught him by surprise. He recognized who she was, thought, Malika, his former partner who joined the Red Robins, a crooked girl scout group and not a sit-down restaurant. She was wearing a blue shirt and a red skirt. Her simple response was what threw him for a loop though.

"Hello, Horatio, how have you and your belts been?"

Horatio grimaced upon realizing that there was a girl in his room while he was only wearing a white towel. "Okay, how'd you get in here?"

"Oh, it was fairly easy, actually. I knocked at the door and claimed that I was your friend Rachelle. Since they never met her, your parents bought it."  
>"Alright then, can you at least get out while I get dressed. I'm not exactly in proper attire for a meeting here."<p>

"Like I would do that." Vallejo threatened by undoing his towel and holding it in front of him. "Okay, I'll look away." The girl got up and faced the window while Vallejo changed into an off-duty outfit consisting of a grey shirt and some brown pants. "So, are you wondering why I'm here?" Malika asked, turning around.

"Tell me."

"Well, I'm one of many working to take you down."

"You're behind the hacking incident."

"Hacking incident? That wasn't me. However, I'm part of the organization, me and the Red Robins. The end is nigh, Horatio. Keep in mind that you don't really have any proof that I'm in on it and that even if you take me down, the Red Robins have orders." The girl opened the window to go out but stopped. "So, how well do you know your new recruit anyway?"

"Who? I have several."

"Rachelle Bueller, of course!"

"She's a seventh grader who's been here since the beginning of the school year. She was born in Kent, Washington and later on moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado before coming here. Her parents are Chicago natives, from what I remember right, or at least lived in the suburbs. Her grandparents still live there. Why?"

"What about why she moved here?" Malika had an evil smile on her face. "Do you know what happened, what she almost did that caused her parents to come here? Heck, do you know their reasons for moving to Colorado from Washington in the first place?"  
>"Honestly, I haven't a clue. That's a part of her personal life. Listen, if you're trying to cause dissention among the safety patrol, then buzz off. I don't care about what you have to say."<p>

"Even if you found out both incidents involved boys." Horatio's eyes widened. "The first involved the death of a boy she was friends with in a traffic accident and the second involved something not as devastating but at the same time, more interesting. You see…"

Vallejo covered his ears and turned away. "I don't want to hear it! Just go!"  
>"Okay, if you say so. The girl has a diary, so I'd suggest checking that out. There's a lot she hasn't been telling you." Then Malika was gone. Vallejo just stood there, wondering what to do.<p>

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><p>Ingrid received a phone call shortly thereafter. She answered and it turned out to be Vallejo. "Hi, what are you up to?"<p>

"Um, don't you have a computer that's hooked up to the school's system?" Ingrid replied affirmatively and headed down to the basement where the computer was at. She then followed Vallejo's instructions.

"What do you want to know about her?" She asked.

"Simple, I want to see her psych evaluations and know what happened where she lived before." Ingrid searched through them.

"Hm. She lived in Washington where she witnessed a close friend, someone by the name of Chad DeLancie get struck fatally by a truck. There's nothing on Colorado Springs, though. Her family moved there after the incident in Washington. From what I see, other than that horrifying incident, her life was perfectly fine, or at least as good as one can expect. Still, to see someone die…"

"So, no behavioral problems or anything?"

"No. What's this about?"

"I got visited by Malika. She said that Rachelle was keeping secrets from me, important ones. What made her family move here from Colorado Springs?"

Ingrid paused for a second. "To be honest, she told me a little bit but it's personal."

"Personal? How personal?"

"I don't know exactly. She said that, well, she moved here because her dad wanted to get her away from one of her friends. Like I say, she never went into any specifics about why, though I have some guesses. Still, none of them would have anything to do with her aiding the enemy. Chances are Malika's trying to pit you against her, undermine your trust. Either that, or distract you."

"I realize that. I… uh, I don't know. Please don't tell her I asked you all this. I'm going to go to the movies with her and Frank this afternoon and I don't want this to ruin that."

"Okay, no problem. I know you're tense. This case is taking its toll on you, especially since it's most likely going to be your last one."

"Any ideas on who's all involved?"

"So far just Malika for sure from her meeting with you. There's still a chance that the former Safety Patrol Sheriff from the other school's involved but we can't prove it for sure."

"Malika and the Red Robins… Third, I need you and Fillmore to go down to the school right now. Actually, go with Tehama. You may not be partners but she's right there. Bring Rachelle along as well. Make sure that nothing happened to the office overnight."  
>"Okay, consider it done."<p>

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><p>Ingrid broke into the school with the two other girls easily, simply using a card. They went straight for the Safety Patrol office and since the janitor usually finished all his work on Friday nights, there was no chance of him being there. Even though there were cameras, they were at least there on Safety Patrol business. "So far, nothing," Tehama remarked after several minutes in the office.<p>

"Yeah, this place is just how we left it last night. Don't you think Vallejo was maybe being a bit paranoid?" Bueller asked.

"He just received a visit from Malika this morning," Ingrid responded. "She's a former Safety Patrol turned Red Robin."

Rachelle was confused. "Wait, so she works at the restaurant now… oh! That Girl Scout troupe. Now I get it. Sorry, I'm still getting used to everything at this school. It's kind of ironic since I've been here longer than you have, if only for a little bit."

"Don't worry. You know, ever since I busted them, there really hasn't been any Red Robin activity…"

"Do you think they've been preparing for whatever is happening right now?"

"Perhaps. Just a second." Ingrid decided to try something. She turned on her computer and did a student search for Lucille Thrift, the former sheriff of Wayne's school. "Crackers…"

"You actually found something?" Tehama asked.

"Lucille Thrift is in the school database. That's what the hacking was for, not to change the grades but so that he could be in it. There could be more..."

"I take it we don't have any files on his henchmen?" Bueller surmised.

"No. We've gotta tell…" Ingrid stopped speaking when she heard some doors open in the distance.

Sure enough, after a couple of seconds, a group of figures came in while Ingrid and the two other girls were carefully hidden underneath the desks. They heard the mysterious intruders head into Vallejo's office and start speaking. Thankfully, Ingrid switched off her computer rather quickly so that they wouldn't know that it was on.

Unfortunately, they couldn't hear anything from inside the office, so Ingrid crawled over to the room quietly and looked in quickly before being seen. There were three boys in the room, one robust and blond, wearing a cowboy hat – Lucille Thrift – another blond, this time tall and lanky with no eyebrows – Goliath – and a third figure, a heavy, brown haired, suit-wearing boy with blue eyes. Ingrid recognized him instantly: Winston Kotter. The girl motioned towards the other two and they quietly snuck out of the room.

Unfortunately, the three heard them. "Safety Patrol!" Then the three girls made a dash for it. The girls ran out the door as quickly as possible. But then, the unthinkable happened: Tehama got struck by several airsoft guns and then tackled by a pair of Red Robins in uniform. Bueller and Third almost got hit themselves, but amazingly got through. It seemed the opposing front simply wanted one of them for interrogation.

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><p>"Kotter…" Vallejo muttered the name in spite. After narrowly escaping the enemy, Third and Bueller ran as quickly as they could to Vallejo's place to talk to him. "He's a part of it now. And with the Red Robins protecting him, we can't turn his life into a living nightmare. This is bad, real bad. Just one question: What are they up to?"<p>

"Unfortunately, we weren't able to figure anything out," Ingrid replied, sitting on Vallejo's bed. "They did all their talking in your office."

"Okay, what I'll need you to do, Third, is to look up any information on what Patterson's boss did to the school database. As soon as you figure that out, get back to me. Somehow I get the feeling this is going to be big. Bueller?"

"Yeah?"  
>"It's time we hit the movies with Frank."<p>

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><p>The movie went by quickly and was pretty entertaining. Of course, it was May, and so all the summer blockbusters were starting to come out. The trio had already left their stuff at Vallejo's house and so it was just a matter of getting it on the way back to Rachelle's place. Vallejo's dad was the one who dropped them off there. Her house was far away from X, in a small town called Lemon Brook.<p>

"Well, here is my place," Rachelle said as the trio walked up to the front door. She unlocked the front door and opened it, walking in. "Mom, Dad, I'm home!" she called out, receiving silence in return. "That's weird. They don't seem to be home."

"They did know we were coming, right?" Vallejo asked.

"Oh yeah, I made sure I talked to them last night and they both said yes. Well, maybe we could do some flash cards for finals and then after about a half-hour or so, go swimming. What do you say?"

"Sound's good enough to me," Vallejo responded. "How about you Frank?"

Frank simply nodded. "I agree. Besides, if we study too much, we could burn out and that wouldn't be good for the finals."

"Maybe in the meantime, I could call the others. I actually know a couple people here. I'm sure Ingrid and the others would like to come too," Rachelle told the two boys.

"Sure, go ahead."

"Oh, and I baked a whole bowl of chocolate chip cookies last night if you want any. I'll just take them out of the pantry."

After the brunette ran into the kitchen and pulled the cookies out of the pantry, all in a large plastic bowl with a lid on it, she put it down and ran upstairs to make a few phone calls. Once she was out of earshot, Frank made a comment. "Wow, she's really nice."

"No kidding." Still, Vallejo had the diary in the back of his mind and he knew he was going to have to read it, if only to allay his fears about what Malika said.

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><p>Ingrid Third wasn't having fun in the minutes up to Rachelle's phone call. She was busy combing the school's database, trying to find anything that was out of the ordinary. She found the student profiles of both Lucille and Goliath in the database and saved them on her computer. Naturally, they both had straight A's and were taking classes that they never attended, all far too advanced for them.<p>

When Third ran a search for Kotter on the other hand, she had a rude awakening. He was on the student counsel. When she opened up the file on the group, she found out that not only was he a member, but he was also the student body president, all despite not being an American citizen.

"Crackers" barely came out of her mouth when Rachelle called.

* * *

><p>A few minutes later, it was decided upon that the kids would all meet at Rachelle's house despite the distance. Fillmore came first, followed by Seth, Augie, a red-haired girl with braces, the chubby blonde girl that was wearing a kilt, Ingrid and finally Anza.<p>

"So, the situation is worse than we thought," Vallejo said, "It turns out that one of our old enemies: Winston Kotter, is now the student body president and one of his associates: Lucille Thrift, the former Safety Patrol Sheriff of a school in Tennessee is now the Jr. Commisioner according to the school database."

"How could that be? I was elected to that position just as the safety patrol defeated the hackers!" Anza exclaimed.

"To be honest," Vallejo started to speak again after taking a sip from his cocoa, "I don't know. The true hackers weren't defeated when we took down Patterson. It turned out he was simply a decoy. However, I may have an idea for some help. Who here knows who was elected president?"

Nobody raised their hand. "Um, I think we were all on high profile cases that week if I remember right," Ingrid said for everyone else.

"And I won't even be at this school next year so I don't even have a clue," Vallejo added.

"There were several competing candidates," Fillmore said from memory. "The Libertarian Party candidate was Checkmatey. Clementina was Republican and finally, for the Democrats, it was…" Fillmore eyebrows shifted when he said the final name. "… Parnassus."

"He won," Frank Bishop commented. "I remember it too."

"You know, it sounded like this election was pretty shady in the first place," Ingrid surmised. "I mean, who among the candidates haven't we gone up against?"

"Maybe it was rigged," Rachelle said. "I mean, you hear about election fraud a lot."

"Not as much in this day and age," Fillmore said. "Of course, that doesn't change the fact that most politicians are pretty crooked."

Now they just had to figure out their next move. Unfortunately, the general consensus was that they were going to have to bring Parnassus in on it, despite their mutual ill-feeling.

* * *

><p>AN: No, I do not intend those political parties to be representative of any in real life. I don't do politics anyway.

As you can tell, the plot is getting even more complicated with both Winston Kotter (from "Immune to all but Justice") and Parnassus (from "Ingrid Third: Public Enemy Number One"). Now for the question of who's worse? You'll find out soon.


	3. The Assassination Plan

Act III: The Assassination Plan

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><p>Disclaimer: Don't own Fillmore!<p>

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><p>Winston Kotter found himself back at his computer desk, typing up his speech for the inauguration ceremony after summer vacation. It was his dream to end up on the student counsel, but because of his lack of American citizenship, it was impossible. But now, with the help of an anonymous source, he could have what he wanted.<p>

He decided after writing several paragraphs to check his Facebook account. To his surprise, one of his friends in Canada had sent him a friend invite. _I thought I was already friends with her,_ he thought. Sure enough it was her. Apparently she couldn't access her account and had to get a new one.

* * *

><p>So far, the new plan was going flawlessly. Ingrid Third was able to set up a fake account using an account of one of his friends in Montreal, copying everything she could from their profile which they had carelessly left public. Nothing like a bit of Facebook identity theft. Of course, they were going to make sure it was gone once the case was closed, every last picture. To make matters better, the girl's account that they copied was written entirely in French, which should allay any suspicions about the safety patrol having any hand it. Ingrid knew French from memorizing the vocabulary lists from some course, doing the exercises in said course, and reading obscure French literature in the original. Then again, she knew Nepalese and Japanese. Photographic memory was a wonderful thing. All they wanted was access to Winston's profile, which he had kept private.<p>

Now, they had a ton of information. He spoke English and French (something they already gathered from his living in Montreal, Quebec), was born in Calgary, knew people from all across the country of Canada, among other things. His hobbies included various types of volunteer work as well as a number of things that none of the safety patrol knew. He was into bodybuilding and hockey for instance, having played as the goalie on his team in Montreal. His music tastes included bands such as the Barenaked Ladies and Nickleback along with a number of groups the safety patrollers had never heard of. His books were of a surprisingly high level, containing the likes of the Hitchhicker's Guide to the Galaxy of all things along with great pieces of world literature.

"This guy actually seems pretty smart. It's a shame he playing for the other team," Ingrid commented.

"No kidding." Rachelle replied, borrowing the mouse for a second to look at pictures. Most of the pictures were of family and friends. There was one with him and a red-haired girl which Fillmore quickly identified as Penny. The date was from early the previous fall, though, so it was before Winston was busted. Then they came across a picture of Winston Kotter fishing in the lake, not wearing a shirt.

"Now, that's disturbing," Ingrid said, quickly pressing the right arrow key. Then they came across a picture of Winston from when he was way younger with another chubby brown-haired guy. The caption was 'Camping with my cousin outside of Vancouver.' Rachelle's eyes were wide at the sight of the boy and this time she was the one that clicked the right arrow. "What was that for?"  
>"Oh, nothing."<p>

Vallejo continued to watch on. The group heard the door to the garage open behind them and they switched over to a different window since Rachelle's parents didn't want her on Facebook. In fact, they were going to have to delete some browsing history a little later on once they decided to get off. They switched to a video of someone named Broc Larson, 'I Decked a Car Salesman', a favorited video of Rachelle that involved the guy beating himself up.

"Hi mom, some friends unexpectedly popped over," Rachelle said as a short-haired woman walked into the room.

"Oh, okay. That isn't a problem. Did you offer any of them the cookies you baked last night?"

"Yeah, of course."

"You'll have to introduce me to all of them later."

Rachelle shrugged and the woman walked off. "That was scary," she whispered.

"Tell me about it," Fillmore said. "Of course, this is official business. So, is there anything we can use?"

"Yes." Ingrid pointed to a certain line in one of Winston Kotter's previous posts. "This is a phase in French that means 'My alliance with the Red Robins and the former Sherriff from Tennessee is working perfectly. Now Vallejo and Fillmore are both going to fall.'"

"Figures he'd brag about it on the internet."

"Yet now we know for sure that those are the only three groups that are involved. Great, this means we might have to take on Lumberjack," Ingrid said. "Does anybody have a plan?"

"Simple, have Yumi reverse the damage done and then we'll take back the school with the help of Parnassus," Vallejo said. "He should have the connection needed for such an endeavor. Not only that, but if need be, Vud will be able to take on Lumberjack."

"Still, how are we sure that Parnassus won't go too far?" Fillmore asked.

"I agree. There are too many variables here. Parnassus might use this as an opportunity to impose martial law."

"Anybody have any better ideas?" Vallejo asked.

"Simple," Anza started to say, "We don't inform Parnassus. Instead, we need to perform a character assassination on Kotter."

"Dawg," was Fillmore's response to that.

"Honestly, character assassination?" Ingrid asked.

"It's where…" Vallejo was about to explain before being cut off by Ingrid.

"… We dig up some dirt on him, unleashing it and destroying his reputation."

"Didn't this guy run a counterfeit baseball card operation?" Rachelle asked.

"Yes, but to perform a character assassination effectively, we're going to have to find something dirtier," Vallejo explained.

"This is going to be difficult, to say the least," Ingrid commented.

Vallejo was actually tired of talking. "Well then, let's take a break here. As soon as you all get home tonight, you're going to have to find something out. You all have access to Kotter's account information so dig something up. Also, use whatever information there is from his school in Montreal. Remember to watch out for anything suspicious on the way home and don't go alone. They already got Tehama and I don't want to lose any more people. Got it?"

The entire group nodded and left the room. It turned out that Rachelle's mom was only home for a few minutes and had already left.

"So, ready for some swimming?" the brunette asked Vallejo and Frank uneasily.

* * *

><p>Fillmore and Ingrid headed straight for his house. Their new objective wasn't going to be easy, but if they were to get Kotter out of the way, they were going to have to do this. Fillmore realized that, having dealt with Kotter when he attempted to unleash his counterfeit baseball card scheme on the school.<p>

At that time, the duo had to turn in their badges to take him down and if it weren't for Vallejo's intervention, they wouldn't have succeeded.

Fillmore was snapped out of his reverie when Third stopped him. "What is… oh." A pair of red robins was patrolling the street, ready to pounce them if given the chance. Spotting them, the duo ducked behind some bushes. "Now I see why Vallejo didn't want us heading home alone."

"It figures. How many Red Robins are there, though? It can't just be Malika's squad this time."

"I see what you mean," the black boy replied.

"Care for attempting a back way into your home."

"Might as well." The duo went around the neighborhood to the back of Fillmore's house and climbed a couple of fences. Fillmore had done that before, so he knew to avoid the yard with a pair of snarling, growling dogs in it. Before they knew it, they were in his yard.

"You mind if I called and asked my dad to come pick me up?" Ingrid asked as soon as they got inside, walking through the kitchen.

"Go ahead. The phone's right over there," he replied, pointing.

* * *

><p>Vallejo knew he should have been doing something. True, he had the words from Rachelle's mouth about everyone needing a time to relax going though his head, but that didn't change a thing. There he was, changing and about to go into a swimming pool while a madman was out there, plotting a takeover of the school. Then again, he was taking it over from Parnassus, who, truth be told, Vallejo couldn't have cared less about.<p>

He pulled off his shirt, followed by his pants and boxers and then, once he pulled on his swim trunks, he proceeded to stop for no reason. He was in the girl's bathroom while Frank changed in her older brother's bedroom. Vallejo simply walked over to the toilet and sat down on it, not even bothering to pull up the lid.

For some reason, the case wasn't what was on his mind. Instead, Rachelle was there. He remembered Malika's words about the girl having a secret and felt like investigating. _What if she's working for the enemy? Come on Horatio, that's impossible! You know her._

Still, he felt a need to make sure, so as soon as he exited the bathroom, which was on the second story, he glanced around, past the railing, and saw the girl in a red bikini, quickly netting anything that may have come into the pool since she had cleaned it the night before. Vallejo decided to use this chance to sneak into her room.

He remembered her reaction to one of the pictures on Kotter's profile on the internet. Somehow that moved him to go faster and probe deeper. He walked into the room, a very Spartan one consisting of a bed against the far wall and a desk on the wall to the right of the room, with various pictures on top. He looked up and didn't recognize anyone in either one.

Actually, he recognized someone in the one on the left. It was someone he had met a couple months earlier, around the time Bueller had joined the safety patrol. He believed his name was Ed, or maybe Eddy. The boy had black hair and brown eyes and was a bit on the heavy side. He was standing with Rachelle. Or was it him?

He did remember the guy having a twin brother. Not that it really mattered with the case they were on. Now the other picture was one of another boy with Rachelle when she was a bit younger who also seemed familiar. Still, Vallejo had a hard time placing him.

Then he spotted the book on the desk. He picked up and just thumbed through the dates, the first one from about four years earlier. He skimmed the entries quickly, mostly being about the day-to-day life of Rachelle Bueller and whatever her friends and family were all doing. Occasionally something entertaining would happen. Then, at the age of ten, the girl moved. There was no mention of the car accident she witnessed when she was younger until about a year into the diary.

Vallejo stopped to think about that when Rachelle walked into the room. The boy just stood there, shocked. "Sorry, I was expecting you to be in here so I came in. Then I started thumbing through this book."

"You know that's my diary, right?" The girl said with a smile.

"Uh, yeah, I kind of figured that one out."

"Don't worry, I don't have any secrets. You can read it all you like."  
>Vallejo was surprised at the girl's demeanor. "Uh, okay."<p>

The girl turned and walked out of the room, stopping in front of the door. "So, are you going swimming or what?" she asked, turning her head around, still smiling.

"Uh, yeah."

Vallejo put the girl's diary back on the desk and then followed her out.

* * *

><p>When Ingrid left, picked up by her father, Fillmore got to work. He decided to continue sifting through Kotter's Facebook page, using Google Translate for any French he came across (of which there was a lot). He found a few things, surprising things. One post, dated around the time of the election, stated: <em>It's obvious that Parnassus rigged the elections. I've talked to everybody I know about it and only about one or two voted for him. This means he's up to something. If only I could do something.<em> Yet there weren't really any posts after that.

Then the unthinkable happened. The boy decided to attempt to chat with Fillmore, thinking he was his friend from Canada and saying something in French. The African-American officer decided to attempt something, copying and pasting the message into Google translate and then translating a reply. He only hoped it worked, especially since they were dealing with two different dialects of French and online translators tend not to be all that accurate. He closed the conversation up after several exchanges, saying that he had an appointment. Winston Kotter seemed to accept the excuse. Then Fillmore logged off.

* * *

><p>Winston Kotter did not know what was up with his friend from Quebec. He had just logged on to chat with her and she had to go. Not to mention, something about her seemed kind of off. As far as he knew, she wasn't some sort of scammer or something.<p>

Unless the Safety Patrol had something to do with it. With that realization, he decided to send a message to the original account. If the person responded, then he would unfriend the new one.

Kotter didn't have much to do at the moment, so he was kind of bored. So he got up and decided to take advantage of the gym at the embassy. As it was, he needed to shed a few pounds. Maybe later on he could get together with Lumberjack and they could catch a movie or something.

However, before doing anything else, the brown-haired boy felt a need to contact the Red Robins. He dialed Malika's cell-phone. "Hello Malika. How is Karen Tehama doing these days?"

_"She's given us plenty of info on the Safety Patrol's members. We have two Red Robins at each of their houses in case any of them come home."_

"Good. I want you to keep an eye on them. Make sure they don't do anything stupid. They're a tricky bunch." Kotter smiled at himself as he hung up the phone and changed into some work-out clothes. He was just glad that he has been able to make a bit of a difference. Or at least that he will be able to.

He glanced at an old picture of him and his cousin that was on top of his bookshelf. _Chad, you would be so proud of me right now for getting rid of this despot…_

* * *

><p>Ingrid processed the information on the case as best she could once she got home. Still, something didn't add up. What did Patterson's group have to do with anything? It was obvious that because of that sleaze and his fangirls, the safety patrol is farther ahead on the case than if they hadn't been there in the first place. She had a feeling that Kotter didn't send them.<p>

But who did? What was their significance? Was some mysterious benefactor trying to help them along and in doing so decided to use Patterson and his cronies to do so? Somehow Ingrid doubted anyone would go that far. It definitely couldn't have been anyone up to anything good due to the manipulation involved.

Of course, the Red Robin Malika visited Vallejo to give a warning. If Patterson hadn't been in the computer mainframe room, then Vallejo wouldn't have been able to put two and two together. Fillmore also wouldn't have been able to figure out that Lucille was in on it either, or even if he had, then they wouldn't have figured out the plot to take over the school.

The black-haired girl's head hurt from all the thinking. There was a missing piece: the person who gave Patterson the codes. If it was Kotter, then why? If not, then who?

* * *

><p>After some serious splashing in the water, Vallejo and Frank decided to take a rest. As hard as they tried, they couldn't get the case off their heads. That and they had Rachelle's bikini-clad body to oogle at guiltily.<p>

The girl walked out of her house with a tray of drinks and set it to the side of the Jacuzzi that Vallejo and Frank were in. The girl's backyard was on the edge of a fairly new subdivision, only a thin plastic fence separated her from a vast field. Lemon Brook, the small town that she lived in, had agriculture as its primary economy. Unfortunately, the middle school had far too many hicks for the girl's tastes so she had a zone variance to go to X instead. Still, from Fillmore's descriptions of the school in Tennessee, it couldn't have been that bad. Then again, Rachelle did grow up in the city, first in Washington and then in Colorado.

Still, it was kind of nice to get away from the city for a bit, even if Vallejo and Frank weren't exactly in the city in the first place, instead being in the suburbs.

"So, were you able to get a hold of any of your friends here?" Vallejo asked Rachelle as she got in the Jacuzzi.

"I talked to my friend Garrett, but he's currently with his dad, remodeling their bathroom. Ever since they moved into their new house, it's been nothing but that."

"I bet. How is the guy doing these days?"

"He's doing alright. Getting used to the new school is tough, but he seems happy. He just talked to his cousin Eddy the other day and that guy's got it worse than he does."

Frank Bishop was trying to use his profiling skills to figure out who they were talking about but his mind came up blank, so he changed the conversation. "So, are you looking forward to the new school-year?" he asked.

Rachelle was puzzled by the abrupt changed in subject, and then realized what happened. "Oh, I'm sorry. I completely forgot you didn't know what we were talking about."

"Other than a guy named Garrett and his cousin Ed, nothing."

"I'm looking forward to it… kind of," Vallejo responded to Frank's question, "It's going to be hard getting used to high school. Not to mention, I won't be Jr. Commissioner anymore. Heck, I won't even qualify until my junior year."

"Hey, at least you'll have me to keep you company when we go on cases," Frank replied, sinking deeper into the water, smiling. Rachelle also cracked a smile.

Vallejo liked it when she smiled. Then he felt awkward. He realized he wasn't going to be in the same school as her during the year to come. He would still see her from time to time, but it just wouldn't be the same.

It was at about that time that Rachelle's father came out of the house. He was a tall, skinny man, wearing only red swim trunks. His chest was hairless and he had brown hair and brown eyes. He smiled at the trio, uneasily. "Hi, Rachelle. I was expecting you to be with your girl friends."

"Don't worry dad. What happened was that my friend Vallejo invited me to study with him and his friend Frank at his house after going to a movie. Instead, I told him to come here. Hey, I didn't break your rules."

Mr. Bueller nodded before getting into the tub with the three kids in between Rachelle and Vallejo. "Okay, good to know. I remember you telling me that you were having friends over but you didn't go into any specifics. Next time, you're going to have to tell me exactly who's coming." He held out his hand to Vallejo and shook it. "You must be Vallejo, am I right?"

Vallejo nodded, trying to crack a smile. "Yeah, good to meet you, Mr. Bueller."

"Likewise. And you must be Frank." Frank nodded, returning the handshake. "How come Frank's got a normal first name but Vallejo doesn't?"

"Actually, my first name is Horatio. I just go by Vallejo."

"Oh, okay, good to know you two aren't on first name basis," he said, jokingly. Rachelle was thoroughly embarrassed, though, and got up, walking inside. "So, Horatio, how long have you known my daughter?" Mr. Bueller asked, scooting to the side and giving the boy a bit more room.

* * *

><p>Rachelle was done getting dressed when she decided to sit down and write in her diary. She was running out of pages. It was about time, since she had the thing for so long. After the death of her friend Chad, her psychologist recommended keeping a diary of all the good things that happened. Unfortunately, this wasn't one of those entries.<p>

After a few minutes, Vallejo walked into the room, still in his swim trunks, with his towel around his neck. "How are you feeling?" he asked the girl cautiously.

"Okay. Sorry about my dad."

"Don't worry. What are parents there for, huh?"  
>Rachelle managed to crack a smile. "No kidding. Of course, none of my friends' parents ever do such a thing."<p>

"Oh, you have no idea."  
>"Believe me, I do. My friend Zack's dad from Colorado Springs, for instance, was always considerate of everyone's feelings. Because of that, Zack never felt like his father embarrassed him or anything."<p>

"You asked him that?"

"Uh, not really."

"Then how do you know he was never embarrassed by his father? Trust me, there was nothing like the time I was having a couple of friends over when we walked out of the room early in the morning to see my dad sprawled out on the sofa, naked."

"That must have been disturbing."

"No kidding. And it turned out that he and my mom had a fight the night before and he was kicked out of the room. It just so happened that he was naked."

"Were they…?"

"Let's just not think about that too much. Then again, he does have an annoying habit of walking around the house in his tighty whities, even when my friends are there."

"I'm so glad mine doesn't do that."

"Yeah? Good. Believe me, there's nothing left to the imagination when someone's walking around in form-fitting underwear."

"Wow, and I've never even seen a guy naked before."

"That's good to know." Vallejo then glanced at the diary. _What _was_ Malika talking about?_

"So, do you want to borrow this?" Rachelle asked, holding her diary.

_I can't believe she's so calm about it. Maybe she's got nothing to hide after all. _"If you want. It's not really pertinent to the investigation."

Rachelle just handed it to him. "Don't worry. I made plenty of mistakes in the past. Trust me; you should have seen how I treated Eddy. Now that was a mistake."

Vallejo took the book reluctantly. "I guess I'll just call my parents."

Just as he was about to leave, though, Rachelle just had to ask another question. "So, what exactly did you talk about with my dad?"

"Oh, he wanted to know how I saw you, whether I was planning on a relationship or anything of that sort."

Rachelle rolled her eyes. "And what did you tell him?"

"That we were just friends and that most of that a relationship wouldn't be viable at the moment."

The brunette smiled. "Good."

With that, Vallejo went to go change and call his mother to pick him up.

* * *

><p>Fillmore had an idea. To execute it, he called Ingrid, and told her to sneak out the back and meet at a nearby convenience store. Then he left his house too, going out the back and cautiously evading any Red Robins in the area. Who knew what they were up to?<p>

"Good, you're here," he said, entering the convenience store and spotting his partner filling up a slurpee.

"You worried that Malika's cronies would get me?" She asked.

"I'm more worried about myself." After paying, the duo left the store.

"So, where are we going?" the black-haired girl asked.

"First we'll go to the store. I'm thinking of arming myself with an airsoft gun. Just to be on the safe side." Ingrid nodded in agreement. "And then, after that, I'm going to visit an old friend."

Ingrid had to think for a second on who that was. "Penny?"

"You got it."

* * *

><p>AN: If you're wondering where O'Farrell is… well… he'll show up eventually… maybe…

So, here comes Fillmore's character arc. First there's Penny and then Parnassus. I'll let you guess where it all leads.


End file.
